The brits did It with during WW2 to fight off German subs and Luftwaffe raiding their merchant ships, called CAM (Catapult Assisted Merchantmen, ship) and MAC (Merchant Aircraft Carriers): https://youtu.be/i6BqpInpZ2wSo nowadays with Steam and Electromagnetic catapults and CAA/UCAVs wouldn't that be much easier?
>>64695479Well, there are a few tankers over 330 meters long. What kind of planes ?
Yes. Its not even that hard if you have right planes.
>>64695479Impossible.
>>64695504Deja vu - again.
>>64695479Dumb idea. Putting billions in aircraft and ordinance on a platform that can't sprint, can't turn, can be sunk with a single JDAM. Why would you want to copy what the Iranians are doing? We have no shortage of Aircraft Carriers despite what thirdies tell you.
>>64695522>We have no shortage of Aircraft CarriersThis.In WW2, it was done as a stop-gap measure following Pearl.Then it so happened that battleships and cruisers were shit against air wings.Then we happened to be very good at this retrofitting stuff and so we made over 100 of them.
>>64695479yeah that's what escort carriers are in WW2. they took regular civilian ships and converted them into aircraft carriers. they were slower and smaller than proper carriers but they let a ship carry, launch and tend to planes. unfortunately most jets require a much longer runway to take off and land than prop aircraft unless you got for a VTOL like a Harrier or F-35B which can do that from anywhere and there's even one time where a Harrier made an emergency landing on a random cargo ship
>>64695479You can but it is more like privateer activity to bully other merchant shit.
yeah Shield AI X Bat
>>64695504Somehow the USMC is still using Harriers. I thought they retired them like a decade ago.
>>64696289Harriers and Chinooks make anything possible.
I wish they would spin up harrier production. It would be so funny if there was a demand for them from countries that cannot afford the F-35b
Modern CAM ship dont really make sense for a lot of different reasons. Strapping a Hurricane on a rail with some booster rockets made sense given that the fighter cost a fraction of the freighter. With an F-35 those costs might be inverted, unless you're talking about the utterly massive ships. But even so, the threats that they'd be protecting against are much different. In 1940 your biggest threat was a Ju-88 or Fw200 appearing on the horizon, and with that a couple minutes heads up could put a fighter up to defend you. How exactly do you anticipate detecting a modern threat with a civilian vessels sensors, be it a submarine, enemy aircraft or cruise missile?
